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State ahead in implementing criminal tracking network

True to its distinction of being a trendsetter in information technology, Karnataka has digitised almost all records pertaining to crime and criminals as part of the Union Home Ministry’s Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS).

While all criminal cases, their progress and persons involved were being digitally recorded since January 1, 2001, when CCTNS was launched, old records from 1995 were also digitised in a phased manner. As of now, about 70 per cent of the old records have been digitised, said Praveen Sood, Additional Director-General of Police, Police Computer Wing.

Karnataka will get about Rs. 49 crore in the Rs. 2,000-crore CCTNS project during the four years of the implementation. The State has already spent Rs. 35 crore on the project. While Hewlett Packard has been the vendor of hardware and software, Grant Thornton, a global consultancy firm, has been the technology partner. The dedicated network is being provided by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) even as Wipro Technologies, which was associated with the Police IT project, continues to be in the picture, Mr. Sood told
The Hindu
.

The system enables creation of a national database of crime records and an authorised person sitting anywhere can access the data. While Police IT comprised 39 modules covering almost all the functions of the Police Department, the CCTNS is confined only to crime and criminals, Mr. Sood said.

Having almost completed Police IT, the State has an upper hand over other States in implementing the CCTNS, he said. Besides Karnataka, neighbouring Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Goa are in advanced stages of implementing CCTNS, he added.

All the 906 police stations and 500-odd higher offices are completely networked and are interconnected. While stations are connected to district headquarters through virtual private network (VPN) wired broadband, the districts are connected to the State headquarters through multi-protocol label switching (MPLS).

The State data centre is located in Madiwala with multiple backup facilities. The disaster recovery centre for Karnataka is located in Delhi, as every State’s recovery centre is to be located in another State, at least 400 km away, in a different seismic zone, he pointed out.

Across the country, over 14,000 police stations and 6,000 higher offices in police hierarchy are sought to be covered under the CCTNS project. This also covers scientific and technical organisations having database required for the investigation and other purposes, namely, finger print bureaux and forensic laboratories.

The system also helps senior officers to monitor progress of cases and keep a tab on the functioning of the department. Checking of criminal antecedents of a person is also made easy. With pictures and fingerprint of criminals stored in the system, crime investigation would become easy. It is a monitoring tool in the hands of the police, he said.

Mr. Sood said it is not only the system that is in place. Every police station has at least five personnel trained in basics of information technology to operate the system. With the induction of new recruits, imparting IT training to them has become easy, he said.